The present invention relates to a radioactive anomaly detector and, more particularly, to radioactive anomaly detector for use in identifying illicit active nuclear threats.
A substantial danger to port cities is the importation of storage containers containing weaponized materials such as chemical or biological weapons or special nuclear materials (SNNs) as found in nuclear bombs or dirty bombs. Identifying which storage containers contain those weaponized materials is therefore vital in maintaining a safe society. However, since storage containers and imported and exported goods are integral to healthy commerce, it is not practical to inspect each and every storage container coming into and leaving a port since such inspections would heavily impede commerce.
Current inspection methods include laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), active X-Ray detection and passive Gamma Ray detection. A LIBS method is generally suitable only for surface residual testing and works by ablating a surface of a specimen being tested. Thus, LIBS is a specific point screening and cannot cover broad areas or volumes. Active X-Ray detection is used to identify certain materials by exposure of those materials to high levels of X-Rays and is generally suitable only for secondary screening. Passive Gamma Ray detection is extremely sensitive to other X-Ray sources in operation nearby and can be readily defeated by adding small amounts of radiation shielding.